Nuts & Bolts of online registration for railway ticket booking.

ba9rn

IRCTC are back on line - slow, but no obvious comms issues.

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Aishah

Back on line but no better! I have given up - slow, clogged, long waiting etc. and now twice failed payment. I got to the last effort to finally get 'not possible to use this gateway at the moment' or words to that effect. When I tried to log out computer completely stuck - i gave up and clicked on the red cross. Not my server - all other sites are working fine!

ba9rn

Just a couple of questions:
1) Are you using the ICICI bank link (first one on list I think) to make your Visa payment?
2) Do you have a 'verified by Visa' password (you get this from your bank)?

Like I said, I used Visa with no great problem (OK, a couple of attempts, and very slow).

Aishah

Yes, i use ICICI- the 'verified by Visa' password? Do you mean the 3 numbers on the back of the card after card no? This is what I type in that spot. In the meanwhile, I sent a letter to them and got back this answer (I can't cut and paste so will write it out!)'Clear temporary files and cache of the browser - try logging in using a new browser and window to overcome this problem. While browsing close all windows and open a new internet explorer>tools>internet options>delete cookies>delete temporary files>delete off line contents>clear history> click o.k.
I can barely understand the jargon, does this mean I go into the IRCTC site again and then do all this stuff? Do I log in, close the windows, then do it? If you can help I would be very grateful! Or someone else in IM?? Thanks, ba9rn

ba9rn

The 'Verified by Visa' is a separate thing from those 3 numbers, but you are not getting that far! It is a password that can be set as an extra level of security. Don't worry about it just now - if you need it you will be asked for it when the bank is abot to take the money.

To clear your browser cache, do what they suggest before opening the IRCTC site....

Close everything, then open the browser (the instructions assume you use Internet Explorer - other browsers will have slightly different instructions):

Then click on 'Tools' and follow the rest of the instructions you have quoted. This will clear the memory ('cache') being used by Internet Explorer. This should make it faster, BUT you will lose the list of recent sites (you won't lose your favourites though).

Feel free to PM me if you like.

Aishah

Many thanks ba9rn - this makes it a lot clearer to me. Have already got an agent to do the ticket - cost the same as the amount of time used by computer! But after this clearing up process, maybe I might get somewhere for my next ticket booking...

proxyindian

I don't have a printer at home. Do they send the e-tickets to your email address? If so, I can wait and print them at work like I do for countless other things, like air tickets.

If they don't, I'll have to use my lunch break at work to book the tickets.

proxyindian

OK, I went in to register and get myself comfortable with the system. I thought I'd try to book a train ticket.

This is what I got for a train from Delhi to Bikaner on September 25: A dialog box that says "Only confirmed/RAC ticket booked. Ticket can only be booked up to time of charting."

OK, I don't know what either sentence means. Can someone interpret this for me?

This may be a clue to figuring this out.... There is a big red notice above the booking box that says "Advanced Reservation Period (ARP) is upto 60 days from 15th of July 2007." (It's already the 30th of July in India.) Does this mean that I have to wait until it they update this to some date after the 15th of July?

I bet that's it, but would like someone here to confirm (and give me a little emotional support please... a little encouragement...) what all this means.

Thanks so much,
Steve

PS, at least I've registered and that's an accomplishment, I think.

Nick-H

Deleted...

It was better than nothing, but not nearly as good as Steven's expert reply...

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steven_ber

Yes, the tickets are sent to your e-mail address so you should be able to print them at work.

I assume you mean train 5609 to Lalgarh Jn (Bikaner), as the other direct train doesn't run on the 25th September, beware, this train starts it's journey in Assam, so can easily run a few hours late, though looking at the train times I think that would be a good thing, I've done a post about this train a couple of months ago, enter 'Lalgarh' into the search box to find the post.

This will always appear, even if there are loads of berths available, just click OK (or whatever appears in the box)

There are berths available in all classes for that train on the 25th September.

The box is just to remind people that waitlisted tickets are not available as e-tickets.

A chart is prepared to tell the train staff the name, age and sex of all passengers, the chart will also show the carriage & seat/berth number of each passenger, the chart is generally prepared 4 - 12 hours before the train departs from it's starting station. (depending on departure time)

In the case of this train, the chart will be prepared some 36 hours before the train arrives in Delhi, so you wouldn't be able to book in that period.

You needn't worry about this; you'll be booking well in advance.

Don't worry about this, the ARP was increased to 90 days earlier this year, it has only just been put back to 60 days, that's the reason for the big notice, it's just a reminder, the 25th September falls within the 60 day ARP.

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How to get helpful replies to your transport/Itinerary questions.



Train information.

proxyindian

Thanks to Nick H and Steven Ber for helping me out. I bought my first set of tickets this morning. No problems with anything at all!!!

Nick-H

Beginner's Luck!

When it works, the site is wonderful, but hey, it can lead to much tearing out of hair.

Well done: enjoy the journeys

ploink

OMG - I tried a five-digit PIN (PINs are five-digit in Finland), and it accepted it!
I wanted to see whether it still gives an error message or whether it has been fixed, and it appears that it has been fixed. Registering was easy - wonder how buying an e-ticket will be.

EDIT: Buying the ticket was easy - after reading advice on IndiaMike and on IRCTC. I had to try three times, though - a problem with browser (IE) settings; payment (by VISA) failed. I had to turn Accept All Cookies on (in IE, Tools --> Internet Options... --> Privacy-tab / Settings (Move the slider...) Thanks for all the help!

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trnrao

All,

Recently one of my colleagues has written an extension to the Firfox browser. This extension helps us to see the accommodation availability within the train search results UI/screen. Against each serach result or train between two places, this automatically gets the availability information for the selected class and displays in the same row.

I thought this will be helpful for better planning of journeys.

Please refer to the link below for more information and also note that this works only with Firefox.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/senthil/arch...ith-irctc.aspx

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steven_ber

That looks amazing, and very useful.

Do you know if there are plans to make it work with http://www.indianrail.gov.in/inet_srcdest_names.html ?

I've not been able to log into the IRCTC website since I moved over to firefox. (I think I did once when I cleared all my cookies)